TSA may apologize for strip searching 3 South Florida women

January 18, 2012|Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

Nearly two months after being subjected to what each called a humiliating strip search by TSA agents at New York’s Kennedy International Airport, two elderly Broward County residents and a woman from Boynton Beach may receive an apology.

Maybe.

“I think they owe me,” Ruth Sherman said on Wednesday as she marked her 89th birthday at her home in Sunrise. “They invaded my privacy.”

Word that Sherman, along with Lenore Zimmerman, 85, of Coconut Creek, and Linda Kallish, 66, could hear a personal “We’re sorry” was sparked by publication of a letter from Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Betsy Markey. It said TSA agents may have violated standard operating procedures in at least two of the incidents.

“I would like to hear that this was a mistake, it should not have happened and that they are sorry,” Zimmerman said. But she added, “They have not only not apologized, they deny it ever happened. Absolutely, I was strip searched.”

Markey’s letter, dated January 3, said the agency “sincerely regrets any discomfort or inconvenience” the women felt. Late Wednesday, however, the TSA reiterated its denial that any strip searches took place. It added that the agency “takes these matters very seriously.’’

In separate accounts, Sherman, Zimmerman and Kallish talked publicly of their treatment over the bustling Thanksgiving holidays.

In separate incidents, the women - who were flying from New York to Fort Lauderdale - said they were ordered to take down their pants to prove to TSA officers their medical devices didn't contain explosives. Each had opted to bypass body scanners, triggering the searches.

Sherman was fitted with a colostomy bag. Zimmerman has a defibrillator for her heart. Kallish must wear a glucose monitor.

“You think it’s nice, you go on a flight, and you have a colostomy bag, and they made me go into a room?” Sherman said. “I said, ‘Don’t touch me, don’t come near me.’”

Zimmerman said her blood pressure skyrocketed after the ordeal that began after she tried to catch her JetBlue flight to Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 29.

“They didn't touch me,” said Zimmerman, a widow, “but my blood pressure after the incident was 189 over 90, and it shouldn't be that high.”

In her letter to New York State Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, Markey denied any of the three travelers were strip searched. She conceded, however, TSA agents may have violated procedures in at least two of the incidents.

After Sherman decided not to pass through the imaging machine, “the passenger began to voluntarily lower her pants to show the [screeners] that she had a colostomy device,” said Markey.

Escorted into a private screening area, the agent asked Sherman to remove the device so that it could be visually inspected. That was a violation of procedures, said Markey.

In Zimmerman’s case, agents erred when they asked her to remove a back brace so that it could be passed through the scanner. “It is not standard procedure for [agents] to screen back braces through the X-ray, and TSA apologizes for this employee’s actions,” wrote Markey.

The incident involving Kallish is not mentioned in Markey’s letter. But she remains outraged both by the treatment she said she received, and by the failure of any of the Florida elected officials she contacted to look into the matter.

“I wrote to all of them and not one ever answered me,” said Kallish.

In the immediate furor over the incidents, the TSA said that thorough searches were warranted to ensure the safety of passengers. “Terrorists remain focused on attacking transportation through tactics such as concealing explosives under clothing,” the agency said in a statement.

Kallish said she remains skittish about flying after screeners “made me stand in a corner. I could not move, so if I had a diabetic episode, I couldn’t get to my apple juice. I was going to go down.”

As for an apology, Kallish said, “What would an apology mean? They say, ‘Sorry, lady, you had to pull your pants down?’ I hope they address the issues.”

TSA officials say they have addressed the issues.

Screeners at Kennedy International have received “refresher training to include scenario-based exercises on how to respectfully and safely screen passengers with disabilities or medical conditions…”, according to the TSA statement.

Officials said the TSA’s Disability Coalition stays in touch with a cross-section of disability groups “to understand their concerns and adapt screening procedures as necessary.”

The agency has also launched a hotline where travelers with disabilities or medical conditions can get answers to questions about procedures at checkpoints. The toll-free hotline number is 1-855-787-2227.